Breezy Johnson celebrates during women's downhill at the 2022 FIS Alpine Ski World Cup on Dec. 18, 2021 in Val d'Isere, France.
U.S. ski racer Breezy Johnson recently revealed that she is bisexual, and having shared this news, is prepared to do her part, if necessary, for others in the LGBTQ community.
No matter what level of attention and interest her revelation generates, she says her immediate mission is to point her skis down the mountain, rebound from injury and maintain status as one of the world’s premiere female downhill racers.
Johnson spoke exclusively to Team USA about both her decision to reveal her bisexuality on Instagram, on Nov. 7, and her definitive goal to become the fastest female ski racer in the world.
“The reason why I wanted to share it was because growing up there weren’t people like me out there and the straight white ski racing world is large – I just wanted to show that people can be different and people can still be good,” Johnson said, during an interview from Copper Mountain, Colorado, where she has been training.
“It’s hard to complain about that one-dimensional aspect of skiing, without being part of the change. In sports, there is still not a lot of openness about this, especially in individual sports.”
The 26-year-old U.S. Ski Team athlete and 2018 Olympian from Jackson, Wyoming, noted that her announcement was no surprise to her teammates, as they were already aware.
Johnson says part of her motivation is to encourage fellow athletes and others in the LGBTQ community to not be afraid to come forward, a practice which she hopes becomes unnecessary.
“The people out there who are like ‘this shouldn’t matter’ are right, it shouldn’t, but we have to be open about it,” Johnson says. “Then kids growing up are like there are tons of people who are gay, trans and bisexual, and it’s not a big deal. That’s what I’m interested in.”
The world class ski racer is willing to stand up for, but not necessarily take on the enormous burden of being a leader of the social movement.
“There’s a lot of pressure as a poster child of that community and I don’t want that pressure. I just want to be me and focus on skiing.”
Johnson informs that support surrounding her decision to go public has been strong and that she has not directly received any negativity or backlash.
“It’s been positive – I think we’re lucky that it’s not ten years ago and things have changed a lot very quickly,” Johnson said. “People have been like ‘I really wanted to see someone like that in the sport and see more people who are different at the top,’ but nobody has been negative to my face.”
Retired ski racer Tina Weirather showed her support for Johnson and her wishes.
“I hope one day there’s no need to “come out” cause it’s 100% accepted and normal and doesn’t need a statement – love is love,” the three-time Olympian from Liechtenstein wrote on Instagram.
Johnson also emphasizes that she doesn’t want to be judged by her sexuality, or the decision to reveal her preference publicly, but rather by her accomplishments on the race hill.
“I’m not hiding or worried about what people are going to ask me in the finish about my boyfriend or what not, but I did get it out there because I wanted to get back to focusing on skiing,” Johnson says.
“Given everything, I don’t think this is going to be the magic bullet. I doubt people will notice a change in my skiing based on this.
“I would hope people credit my work ethic and my results, and not some announcement.”
